diff --git a/services/arr/arr-search.nix b/services/arr/arr-search.nix
index 81e5867..580d334 100644
--- a/services/arr/arr-search.nix
+++ b/services/arr/arr-search.nix
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ let
 
   curl = "${pkgs.curl}/bin/curl";
   jq = "${pkgs.jq}/bin/jq";
+  shuf = "${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/shuf";
 
   # Max items to search per cycle per category (missing + cutoff) per app
   maxPerCycle = 5;
@@ -54,10 +55,16 @@ let
       local label="$2"
 
       local series_ids
-      series_ids=$(${curl} -sf --max-time 30 \
+      # Fetch the full wanted list, dedupe to seriesIds, then randomly
+      # sample maxPerCycle. Sonarr's wanted endpoint returns one record
+      # per episode, so a small pageSize collapses to a single seriesId
+      # whenever any one show dominates the alphabetical head of the
+      # backlog -- which starves every other show indefinitely.
+      series_ids=$(${curl} -sf --max-time 60 \
         -H "X-Api-Key: $SONARR_KEY" \
-        "${sonarrUrl}/api/v3/wanted/$endpoint?page=1&pageSize=${builtins.toString maxPerCycle}&monitored=true&sortKey=title&sortDirection=ascending&includeSeries=true" \
-        | ${jq} -r '[.records[].seriesId] | unique | .[] // empty')
+        "${sonarrUrl}/api/v3/wanted/$endpoint?page=1&pageSize=5000&monitored=true" \
+        | ${jq} -r '[.records[].seriesId] | unique | .[]' \
+        | ${shuf} -n ${builtins.toString maxPerCycle})
 
       if [ -z "$series_ids" ]; then
         echo "sonarr: no $label items"